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AJ Williams

Kelowna Sprint Triathlon – August 2011

One week to go… time for a re-cap on training. My big issue is that I loosely keep track of how many runs and swims I do on a weekly basis, but I don’t necessarily structure the content! I’ll run at least once a week, and usually it’s 8ish km. I have upped to two a week, but still no structure. The swim is similar – two per week for as long as I can remember now, but not too much thinking. The biking part of things (I love my biking!) has been a little better. I’ve tried some interval training on the bike, and had some riding with the tri-bars attached. Am I ready? Who knows!

The trip… We arrived the day before, and decided to camp just outside of downtown Kelowna. It proved to be a good idea, as I always sleep well when in a tent. Any concerns over where to park and where to pick up race numbers etc. were quickly put to bed, as things were so well organized! I even found time to swim in the lake before the organized tour of the bike course. That bike tour was great for anyone not familiar with the area, and meant that I was confident pushing hard straight out of T1 the next day.

So the registration, swim and practice ride went well. But I’d forgotten to eat lunch! Oops! A big feed for dinner and then sleep was all I could do - and then a very early start for body marking at 6am! This was also organized well, and I now had an hour before the 7:15 start time. Wetsuit or not, wetsuit or not? The lake was at 20.8 degrees, and suits were allowed, but would the extra speed in the water be worth the extra seconds in T1? I went with the suit and after setting up my transition area (I had a great spot next to the fence so plenty of space), trotted over to get a swim warm up.

The race… National anthem finished, horn blown, and now hundreds of men run into Lake Okanagan hoping to be the first round the 750m course. This seems like a long way to me, not sure if I’d ever be ready for the 1500m of an Olympic distance! I had no idea what the time was like as I eventually exited the water and ran towards T1. I did well not to be kicked in the face or collide with too many people during the packed swim. Now it was wetsuit off (hmmm... should’ve practiced this a bit more) and bike shoes on. As transitions go I thought it was a bit slow – and it was!

The bike ride went well I thought, and I know I can push harder in the future. One 8-9% climb of about 1.5km, then flat to rolling for the rest of the 10km course (2 laps). I noticed, as a cyclist, that many of the triathletes insist on pushing a huge gear, which means they fly around the flats, but then cannot climb the hill very fast at all. I kept an average cadence of 100 – right on target. I powered on, and my first triathlon using ‘clip-on’ tri bars was a success. The fact that we had an entirely closed road course was just great, and the support all around the course was amazing!! T2 was brief as it was just a change of shoes, quick sip on the water bottle and then the run.

I already mentioned that my run training is a bit suspect, and this showed straight out of the blocks! My legs felt so heavy, and although I felt I had energy, I couldn’t convert it into speed. My first 2km was over 10mins, and I was desperate to get to the end of the 5km. The course was flat, and showcased some beautiful parts of downtown Kelowna (plus the side of a highway!). A woman came past at a pace slightly faster than mine, and I tried to stick on her tail to gain some speed. My pace picked up a bit, and I got into a bit more of a stride – I then managed a super-fast sprint finish before cursing myself for not having that speed for the rest of the run! Right, where’s the food tent?!

Results wise, I swam in under 15 minutes, averaged 34kmh on the bike, and came in just over 24mins for the run. 7^th in my age category –very happy!!

If you’re thinking of attending a triathlon event, I couldn’t recommend this one enough. The organization is fantastic, and the crowd is huge. Oh, the weather wasn’t bad either, and I’d finished it all before 9am – time to visit those wineries!!!